Your risk exposure as a flipper is similar to that of a builder and as such you need to operate through an entity to limit your exposure.

Can I view depreciation write offs as a no intrest, no risk loan against my future appreciation realized at the sale of the property because of depreciation recapture?

Tenants, once approved for subsidy, don't like to risk losing it.

., price + rehab = 70% of ARV), they certainly won't make anywhere near $80K profit.Assume they get a hard money loan for the $140K and hold for six months.They pay purchase closing costs around $2500.They pay the $20K for rehab.They pay about 10% of the loan in money costs, $14KThey pay insurance, utilities, and whatever else in holding costs, $3K (try pricing a vacant house or builders risk policy.)

If a bankruptcy is due to a once in a lifetime bad event, and he is good about paying his bills since, he is probably OK as a risk.

If its retail, and you are determined to have something in that area, just go buy something now, and eliminate the risk of this developer failing.

This is called "risk overlay(s)" and is explained here.

I'm sure there are people out there that will lend me the money as a private note rec. and if this is the only option to get 100% financing how do I go about finding these people and is there more risk in using a private party loan?

I don't have much cash or credit and will be focusing on mostly CAs and perhaps some SLOs if the numbers justify the risk.

If you cannot convince her of the long term benefits of rental real estate, its not worth the risk.